Skin appearance is a major indicia of looking healthy. Skin color, the lack of wrinkles and a complexion free of blemishes certainly makes one look and feel better.
Make-up formulas, for example, have been designed to mimic a person's skin tones. High loadings of colorants are optical ingredients necessary for such formulae. While formulae loaded with colorants achieve a covering purpose, high levels of colorants can negatively interfere with sensory attributes and active deposition. In fact, high levels of colorant can make skin look artificial in nature.
Other formulae that provide benefits to skin rely on the soft focus effect and utilize metal oxides, like titanium dioxide. These formulas often whiten skin and hide blemishes but are easy to rub-off after application and usually result in an undesirable ashen appearance. Furthermore, such products are draggy, and therefore, provide little sensory benefits and are hard to apply and create a homogeneous complexion.
It is of increasing interest to develop compositions that are suitable to improve the look and feel of skin while simultaneously providing exceptional sensory and nourishing benefits to skin. This invention, therefore, is directed to a skin benefit composition for improving the appearance of skin. The composition is one comprising a hydroxy functionalized solvent and 12-hydroxystearic acid. The composition, surprisingly, is at least substantially transparent, free of crystallization and gellation and one which delivers excellent sensory, skin nourishing, anti-aging and/or lightening benefits to consumers. Also, the composition is one which generally improves the overall quality of skin.